A silicon-bipolar amplifier for 10 Gbit/s with 45 dB gain

A 10 Gbit/s limiting main amplifier for use in optical transmission systems was implemented in an advanced 0.4 /spl mu/m silicon-bipolar technology. The device has one differential input and two differential outputs. It is mounted and bonded on a softboard carrier for all of the following measurements. The small signal differential gain is 45 dB and the bandwidth is 9 GHz. The output voltage is limited to 400 mV/sub pp/ differential at each output. The minimum input voltage for 1.10/sup -9/ bit error ratio at a pseudo random word of length 2/sup 23/-1 was measured to be 2.25 mV/sub pp/. The chip area is 1.8 mm/spl times/3.1 mm. The power dissipation is 400 mW at a single supply voltage of -4 V.<
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